Please help merged credit file!

Hotdog84

Hi all new to the forum, I'm hoping someone could help me with my problem, the problem I have is, I have the exact same name and dob as another person in my city in Glasgow apart from our middle names. I have his address linked to my name and it has defaults on this address, I've had to spend alot of time getting some defaults removed over the last 18months, and callcredit have compensated me for my troubles, but this company cabot financial who have linked my address on equifax and experian are unwilling to remove the link off my credit file and are saying that they have sufficient evidence that I have stayed at this address which is untrue, I feel so let down and out of options as I want to buy my first home this year 4 me and my son and can't because of this, I work for the milatry in Afghanistan so i can only get a hour or so a day to try n sort this via the internet as signal is terrible to make phone calls. I'm hoping someone out there has had simillar circumstance and could give me some advice on what to do next as I'm out of options. Regards Dave.

Nebulous2

If you have put a formal complaint to Cabot and they have refused to remove it you now need to put your complaint to the Information Commissioner (ICO) I'd formally complain to Experian and Equifax and report them as well.

sparkey1

ok, can I make some suggestions to help to prevent this getting worse.

1 Log a protective CIFAS registration at

https://www.cifas.org.uk/services/identity-protection/protective-registration

2 Register a password on your credit files, and request that everyone opening a new credit account has to have the correct middle name.


3 Get a notice of correction put against the offending credit entries on your credit report.

4 Contract the departments that deal with credit files for each company and dispute. (Its going to be a long process via email on Herrick)

5. Sign up for clearscore, noddle and MSE credit club. All free give you 1 free credit report per month. Look for changes that arent supposed to be there.

I hope that gives you some help to begin with. Stay safe.

Hotdog84

Thankyou for your reply, I had already registers with cifas, and it hadent helped me stop the merges unfortunately, sparkys on your 2nd point i can't seem to find out how to register a password for my middle name? I think this could help me. Just also noticed I've had a new merge thismoring with a company called valour loans £600 in arreas from feb on Equifax. Absolutely gutted. Feel so let down.

PixelPound

Under GDPR you have a right of redress that the information held on you be correct. You need to point this out to Equifax & Experian (if call credit have already done this) and Cabot. Make official complaints to all concerned. You need to make complaints before you can escalate it to ICO.

Is there any legal advice options through the army?

sparkey1

Hotdog I did it in 2012 when I became aware of an attempt at Fraud by taking out the free trial of the Experian Credit Expert subscription. I then registered the fraud attempts so I got access to an advisor. They then worked with the other CRAs.

The new debt - Dispute with every credit reference agency reporting it asap.

Have you reported this to action fraud. If the person with the almost the same details exists, maybe they can investigate further. I think its become fraudulent because the chap is obviously not paying them back, yet is continuing to get monies.

Where searches had been done, I also got them removed. Sometimes you have to argue and contact the concerned companies. Contact them directly and advise them of fraud

When you get the credit report, campaign to remove any address associations for addresses that you have never lived at.

Have the new debts appeared since your CIFAS registration. If so complain to CIFAS that its not worked.

I am wondering if contacting National Hunter may help. National Hunter is an organisation that checks applications for inconsistencies. Ie Where someone applies for two loans in short succession but they submit different salaries. I suspect you would be the first, but maybe you could ask them to put a marker on your file with them to refuse all credit applications that don't bear your correct middle name or request all applications made in the next 6 months are stopped. Got to be a unique idea. They may be able to do that for you. Their website is at https://www.nhunter.co.uk/

You have to be really persistent at this initially. Sorry it cant be any easier.

Hotdog84

So I decided to take advice on what you said sparky, and say that there has been fraud on this loan for £600 from valour loans, they looked into it in more detail, and they're operations director has emailed me saying he can see that there has been a mistake and it's equifax that has mistakenly merged me with this other persons credit, he was very helpful and contacted them and explained the situation. The loan has came off my file and now it's on the linked address part of my credit file, it's linked to this other persons address not Mine?? now i still have this on my file. (Big sigh) I then contacted Equifax today regarding this and they now say that they will contact them regarding the accuracy of the information they have supplied and may take up to 21days. So this is me going around in circles as I need to wait for Equifax to contact them again. And do this full process agsin.

Willing2Learn

Hi Hotdog84,

If it were me, I would put an official complaint in writing to Equifax and any other agency connected to this ongoing saga. They would then have eight weeks to resolve the issue. If there is no satisfactory resolution after eight weeks, I would then escalate the complaint to the ICO (Information Commissioners Office).

Hotdog84

I've raised s dispute with cabot finance with ICO regarding the linked address in experian. Also I have raised a dispute with Equifax with the ombudsman regarding the accuracy of files on my credit file. So I'm still waiting to hear back from them, I was hoping to get this resolved before I'm home on leave in October so me and my parner can start looking at house's to buy , but with the speed this is going at, it could well be nxt year unfortunately.